Swampbeer, you mean this catalog?
Plant you some nasturtiums, then. Look for the bush type, rather than the vining type (unless you WANT vines following you into the house.) Lots of hot colors - deep oranges, yellows, golds and corals - and some have variegated leaves, too, which make a gorgeous display spilling out of a windowbox. Periodically, pick some flowers and leaves and rinse them, then throw them in salads. (They’re a relative of watercress.) Also, if you mix in nasturtium petals with cream cheese, you get a yummy, pretty spread for crackers.
If you prefer cool colors, go with violas in purples and pinks. I don’t know about the leaves, but the flowers are edible and very pretty when dipped lightly in beaten egg white and superfine sugar. Put 'em on cakes and cookies.
If flowers aren’t crucial, you can plant mesclun mix, which is a bunch of pretty colored and textured leaves that can all be used in salads. Just pluck off however many leaves you need. Keep out of reach of bunnies - they go completely bonkers over this stuff and will leave you leafless.
I’ve got moles and it’s treacherous to walk in my yard. Some of their tunnels appear to be small dens or mole convention centers. I came dangerously close to twisting both ankles several times this weekend. I was told to put down some kind of grub killer and the moles will seek dinner elsewhere. Then I need to get one of those big, heavy roller doobies to flatten my yard again.
My sign of spring is upon my belly - a line of bug bites. I don’t know what it was the flew/ crawled/ crept/ slithered under my shirt while I was raking on Saturday, but it left me with about 7 or 8 critter bites that itch like crazy!!! I also got a couple behind my right ear. It’s not even skeeter season, when I usually become a walking critter snack bar. Oh, the curse of being so sweet…
Signs of spring here, besides my belly bites, include daffodils and forsythia and tulips, and all the flowering trees, and the little blue flowers in the side yard. And weeds. Lots of weeds. I’ve got lots of weeding to do.
Still, it beats shoveling snow! Happy spring!!!
I think I got out of jury duty! I showed up this morning, hung out until 12:30 (including some wandering around downtown Troy, which was a surprisingly pleasant experience), and then was told that they had everyone they needed for today so I could go. I’ve still got to check tonight to see if they need me tomorrow, but so far, no actual jury duty.
Now, instead of actually going to work, I’m taking care of a few things from home and then going out in the gorgeous weather to drive around for a while, pretending to do work. I’m supposed to be checking out some properties that our company has listed. So I actually get to drive around in the sun for a couple hours AND consider it work! Woo!
Spring here is when I start hearing baseball sounds out my windows. I live right across from the college baseball field with all those cute baseball players in their spiffy uniforms. So I can watch them right out my window. And I’m probably the only person in the world who actually likes the sound of a metal bat. But I lived first next to a softball field for 2 years and now this is my 3rd spring by the baseball field so the sound of metal bat on a ball = spring weather and sunny days!
Oh great VunderBob! Now Wile E’s gonna be blowin’ herself up over and over and over. You do understand this means you are in charge of cleaning up the place when she blows herself up all over the MMP, don’t you? All that trouble for roadrunner. Looks kinda tough and stringy to me. Of course, AIR, ol’ Wile E had a cookbook of yummerific roadrunner recipes so maybe it’s all in knowin’ how to prepare roadrunner properly.
swampbeer, har! har! har! Normally I’d chalk it up to one of your typos you swear are unintentional, <snerk> beer and cockies <snerk> but I got a feelin’ there was all sorts of intent in this one.
Holy crap, I have something useful to add!
I do enjoy the Vegas. The first stop in planning any Vegas trip is to get over to Cheapo Vegas and say hi to Casino Boy. They have great reviews of pretty much all the casinos, and some pretty good tips on cheap stuff to do (if you’re cheap, like me). Where are you planning on staying? If you haven’t picked the hotel yet, what area?
swampbeer. Heh. So how was that open bar you mentioned once or twice?
Actually, I was looking at that site just this morning! We made reservations at the Frontier.
When are you going, Scout? I read in the paper this weekend that Wayne Newton is leaving whatever hotel it is he performs at. If you’re goin to Vegas, you just gotta see Wayne Newton!
And taxi, you live in/near Troy? I used to drive down to there from Saratoga Springs once a month to pick me up some funny books. Of course, that was in 1984-85. (Crap - I was in school twenty years ago?!?! I am old.)
Guess I will buy some Elvis Costello tickets to combat feeling old. But then I’ll have to forget that I saw him in 1981.
Spring began in Wyoming about a week and a half ago…I am assuming you have all heard the saying that there are four seasons in Wyoming - almost winter, winter, still winter and road construction. The part of I80 that goes through here is indeed down to one lane with lots of orange cone type things that appeared over night about a week and a half ago. And over the weekend it snowed, was 55 deg F and then snowed. Again. Spring time whoohoo!
Sean, we’re going right after Mother’s Day. But I gotta be honest. I’d rather poke my eyes out with a sharp stick than see Wayne Newton.
There must be something wrong with me, because I just don’t like Vegas. It’s smoky and crowded and riddled with cranky bratty children and I strongly suspect I have no gambling gene at all. Of course, I have terrible luck; I managed to lose at a raffle where everyone was supposed to win something. They kept calling numbers until there were no more prizes and everybody had a prize but me. So Vegas is just a boring drive to a smelly aggravation and bad shopping. Or maybe I need a more generous application of liquor?
FairyChatMom, it could have been much worse! My sister awoke to something buggy crawling around under her jammies and it was a giant (okay, about five inches long, but still) scorpion. She didn’t even get the shirt off all the way before she started beating it into scorpion jam. Bleargh. I wonder if a baking soda paste would make your bites less itchy. Or oatmeal. I won’t tell you what happened to my father when he was doing yardwork, but I will mention he learned to tuck his pants into his boots after that.
You sillies should know that spring is over and it is now the beginning of summer. My toenails are a delightful pinkish/coral and I can hardly wait for the first nectarine. Nectarines with cinnamon and sweetened creme fraiche, mmmmmm…
Oh! I almost forgot about my dream of swampy. He was in Seattle and looked just like the painter guy Jim on Debbie Travis’s decorating show, only much larger. Like twenty feet tall and he was hugging everybody so it was a sort of bearish King Kong set on the space needle. Poor Life On Wry, she was squished when he grapped her about the neck, but he didn’t drop her because he was still nice just very tall.
I truly am enjoying the beginning of spring. I went down to the city with TG yesterday, and visited a museum to get all cultured and stuff. It was a lovely trip - we saw an exhibit on Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmarte. Montmarte, in case you didn’t know, was an area of Paris - the area of Paris where Moulin Rouge was, as a matter of fact. Now - don’t you feel all cultured? We also got to see some cherry blossoms, which was nice, and did some walking, but my back started hurting so we headed back.
Today I’m cool with the shades goin’ on. Actually, it’s not for coolness’ sake (actually, I think they’re kinda dorky) - it’s because I went to the eye doctor today, and got drops and am all dilated. Of course, I don’t tell anyone this - and I know they are dying to ask why. Just my own cheap thrill not to tell.
I’m wearing capris - not quite ready for shorts.
Susan
Yes, I remember mud season. But it was my experience when I lived in the high country that we did have four seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter, and construction. Also, if it is tourist season, does that mean I can shoot them?
Now that I live in Junction, spring is heralded by the smell of burning ditchbanks and road-killed skunk. Hopefully my flowerbed of hyacinths will cover the smell!
I think spring and winter are having an argument, and that winter is winning. We just had yet another big hail storm with thunder.
I want some nice, pleasantly warm weather. I wonder when I’m gonna get it?
My gardens need weeding, my lawn needs cutting, and I’d like to put some flowers out, for pete’s sake!
My youngest sister went to Vegas a few years ago and went to Wayne’s show. She was sitting right by the stage. He was playing the crowd as I believe he does, and he came to her to smooch her. My sister, my not-too-very-shy sister, grabbed his ass.
Poor Wayne…
That’s probably why he’s leaving!
Would the be the beertending sister, the one I’m in lust with? I can certainly see the handful of ass happening with her…
[QUOTE=swampbear]
swampbeer, har! har! har! Normally I’d chalk it up to one of your typos you swear are unintentional, <snerk> beer and cockies <snerk> but I got a feelin’ there was all sorts of intent in this one. :D[/QUOTE
Actually, it’s not my typo to claim, but I sure adopted it for my own. After the big wedding story, and the open bar, it sure fit…
That would be the one. Goodness knows neither of the others would even consider such a move…
Aaahh, mud season. I did some hiking in VT just after mud season ('cause they close the trails during mud season so hikers don’t disappear (and so the trails don’t erode too much)) and the trail joined up with an old logging road for a while. As I approached the dirt road, I noticed that someone had laid some freshly cut branches on the road, making a path right down the middle. Well, I thought, that’s strange. So I walked out onto the road, next to the branches. (Keep in mind, I was carrying about 30 pounds or so in my pack) Two steps later, I was stuck. My right leg sunk down to about my knee, while my left leg was underground up to mid-calf level. I wasn’t sinking, but I couldn’t move. I ended up taking off my pack (which sunk a few inches on it’s own), sitting down (which is pretty easy when your legs are underground), and working my feet out of the muck.
I walked on the branches for the rest of the way.